Cooking 1st Butt - Time??

[Jimbo]

Thank you for all the replies!  The butt is in the fridge with a coating of mustard & rub on it now.  I plan on preheating the BS and throwing the butt in there around 12-1 am. 

Here's the new twist....Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow and I don't have a covered area for the BS.  IF it starts to rain I'll have to finish the butt in my oven.  My oven goes down to 175 degs so I'll be set on temp, but how should I finish this thing in the oven if need be?  Wrap it in foil and throw it in there or just put it in on an elevated rate in baking pan uncovered or what??

Thanks again.

[Chez Bubba]

Jimbo,

It probably depends on how much cooking you get done in the Bradley before you put it in the oven. I would say foil if the IT is within 10F, rack & drip pan if it's not.

My smoking area is partially covered (outlet) but I don't like keeping the smoker under the eave. Bradley won't tell you you can, and I won't tell you you can, but I've never let a little rain or snow stop my smoking. 6 years later & it's used, but certainly not trashy. I just close the top vent to about 1/4 & smile.

Kirk

[asa]

Thanks Arcs for your sage advice - I'll try to follow your fine example. And thanks to the others for your replies. I'll certainly give the ftc a try.

[Habanero Smoker]

Asa;

You seem to have a curiosity of what is happening to the food during preparation and cooking, and won't just settle for just following a formula (recipe) and sitting back to drink a beer. If you want to learn more about "kitchen" science there are several books written by food chemist Harold McGee. They are not books on smoking, but all the questions you have asked are contained in his books; although you may have to dig. You may not learn every thing there is to know about food science, but you will know more then what you had previously. The quest is not knowing all, but to continue to learn.

Two that I recommend.
Excellent reference book. You just have to dig for the information.
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen

I haven't purchased yet, but keep planning to.
McGee on Food and Cooking : An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dblended%26field-keywords%3Dharold%20mcghee%26results-process%3Ddefault%26dispatch%3Dsearch/ref%3Dpd%5Fsl%5Faw%5Ftops-1%5Fblended%5F14095870%5F2/002-3523923-8666450

[asa]

Thanks for the Harold McGee tips Hab. I do have the most recent "On Food and Cooking: Science and Lore etc" (asked for it last Christmas) but had never heard of the other one until now - didn't know it existed. I'll look into it, thanks.

Another of his you might really enjoy if you haven't seen it is "The Curious Cook" where he takes on some of the "old-wives-tales" found in cookbooks. Like "sear the meat to keep the juices in." (Answer: searing doesn't do anything to keep juices in, but it is important to develop flavor through caramelization and the Maillard reaction). And one of my favorite examples, which went something like "to make mayonnaise, emulsify one cup of oil with one egg yolk." Harold wondered (I love the way his mind works), how much oil will one egg yolk emulsify? Turns out the answer is something like 6 gallons.

I think I got turned on to McGee through my favorite cooking mag "Cooks Illustrated," where they take a more or less scientific approach to experimenting with recipes and sometimes quote McGee. Christopher Kimball seems to be of the same mind-set. I think that's why I like him and his approach to cooking. Anyway, you got me pegged right, sir. Thanks for the references. I second your recommendations to others on this list.

[Habanero Smoker]

All the information in "The Curious Cook" you will find in "On Food and Cooking", so I found no need to purchase that. Although the information in "The Curious Cook" is easier to find.

Keep exploring :)

[asa]

"On Food and Cooking" seems to me to be more of a reference book, while "The Curious Cook" seems to be a more interesting read (although more narrowly focused), with more detail about his process of investigating a few areas of food science. I haven't checked carefully, but I don't doubt that his conclusions from "Curious" are included in the larger work.

Regards . . .

[Jimbo]

Well, the rain held off so I started the butt at midnight and took it out today at 5:15pm when the internal temp reached 190 deg and then FTC'd for 2 hrs.  It was a fine meal.  Everyone loved it.  Thanks for the help guys.

[asa]

How long does it take the BS to get up to your set smoking temperature?  My preference is to get up to your smoking temperature as soon as possible.

This was in reference to my statement about starting out without preheating.

Well, HS, I started out this am with 20-25# of cold meat from the fridge. It sat at room temp for ~2 hrs before turning on the BS. Starting without preheating, but with boiling water in the bowl, my BS recorded the following temps (temp ranges are due to the fact that I have two probes measuring air temp):
10 min      - 100 degrees F
30-40 min  - 150
1 hr           - 165-170
2 hr           - 165-185
2.5-3 hr     - pretty steady at 185-200
All of this time has been with the smoker heater on high.
I'll probably have to turn it down a little over the last hour, but I think your main question was about how fast it would heat to cooking temp from a cold start.

Regards,
     Art

[Habanero Smoker]

Art,

Thanks for providing this information. The cabinet does get up to cooking temperature faster then I would have guessed.

[asa]

The 4 hr data are as follows:
bottom rack = 225
door = 205
new Polder dual-temp in upper rack area = 195 (as you pointed out, this probe seems problematic - I'll probably return it if I can). It was positioned slightly above the venison roast that was showing an internal temp of 145.
On the other hand, my Taylor instant-read, inserted through the vent read slightly over 200.

These 4 hr temps were also with the heater on high. Temps would have been higher I think if I hadn't disregarded everyone's admonitions about not opening the door for 4 hours. I opened the door several times, including twice to . . .ummm . . .(. . .cough . .)  throw in and retrieve a couple of hot dogs for lunch. Temps seemed to regain prior levels reasonably quickly, however.

Art

[asa]

Art,
Thanks for providing this information. The cabinet does get up to cooking temperature faster then I would have guessed.

My guess is that the heat-capacity of that bowl of water is significant, so starting out with that at 200-212 makes the whole thing heat up a lot faster than if the water started at 65 degrees (which I never tried). [I've also added the 4 hr data in another post]